BeReal: tools and methods for implementing benefits realisation and management

The need to identify, monitor and manage benefits throughout a programme/projects
lifecycle is being accepted as a way to ensure the success of that programme or project.
Major capital investment programs and projects within both the private and public sector
are conventionally measured upon their performance relating to tangible outputs such as
cost, quality and time of delivery and not on the benefits they deliver. Benefits
Realisation and Management is a method which is changing this way of thinking and
focuses upon using benefits to drive, manage and measure the performance of a
programme or project. Since 2006, The Health and Care Infrastructure Research and
Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) has been working towards developing a Benefit Realisation
Management process (BeReal) which uses both ICT in collaborative environments and
tools and methods to meet the above demands, by providing facilitation for evidencebase
decision making, aiming to promote continuous improvement and organisational
learning. BeReal has been developed focusing upon capital investments within healthcare
infrastructures. The research project presented is a result of a literature review and
action research which involved a close working relationship and dialogue with an
advisory group and multiple case studies. The paper will present the importance of
managing the realisation of benefits throughout a programme’s or project’s lifecycle by
adopting BeReal during the planning, development, delivery and operational phases. The
paper also argues why appropriate ICT tools using collaborative environments are
developed to facilitate a simple and ‘user friendly’ implementation of the BeReal
methodology.